Mission Lead Marketing - The Indian way

I came across this article about how Brands can drive across social change in Harvard Business review Marketing meets mission , it talks about how some brands were able to bring in behavioural change among people in the society. This is very vital in this situation of pandemic and fear. India is not new to these types of marketing , especially during festive seasons we can see plenty of brands rushing to give public interest awareness videos.

One great example is the campaign carried out during the Kumbh Mela in India , this was done by heat stamping a simple message in Hindi “Lifebuoy se haath dhoye kya?” (Did you wash your hands with Lifebuoy?).

You can read this at the campaign here Roti Reminder. 

Another such great campaign is by TATA TEA which ran this #JaggoRe campaign . It talks about the various social ills in India. They are also running a campaign website and facebook page JaagoRe FB . It talks about bribery in election , Gender bias , Plastic waste, and it's recent campaign talks about elder care during #Covid19 

Mission Lead Marketing is very useful for most developing countries, as they help people change their behaviour and also contributes to a positive image for the brands among its customers and general public. 

Indian brands do it all the time, there is this one advertisement where a joint family was having dinner, a little boy was angry with his mother for scolding him for taking 10 Rupees from his fathers purse and pushed away his plate, everyone was supporting the little boy, making snide remarks at the daughter-in-law , the Father-In-Law , finally snaps and says "If i was his mother i would have starved him for two days, today he is stealing 10 Rs what will he do tomorrow? " finally the ad ends with the FIL telling his DIL you  did the right thing. This is an Advertisement campaign by All-Out  mosquito repellent  #StandByToughMoms .  

There was a lot of controversy with this advertisement that it promotes patriarchy and how it is toxic, but i believe this advertisement depicts how a typical family  discussion runs , and nothing is wrong. The advertisement made it clear that a mother is right in disciplining a child and it clearly linked the being tough part with its product.

Tata Tanishq is another brand which constantly pushes this idea of a modern society and it positions itself as a modern jewellery for the modern woman. This particular advertisement of Tanishq stands out for its portrayal of a bride who is remarrying with a kid. In India there is a large scrutiny over the skin tone of a bride, and remarrying is a taboo, this advertisement broke all these taboos by showing the bride to be of dusky skin tone and having a small kid. 

These kinds of advertisement are what which will push through social change. And I fully agree that Mission Lead Marketing is a great concept and it will serve both the Brand and the society very much. Do share your thoughts on this in the comment section.

How Brands used the viral social media trend #Pray_For_Nesamani

One of the perks of learning Marketing is you can relate to everything happening around you and see the idea behind the trend. one such trend which was supported by Tamil Twitter is this "#Pray_For_Nesamani". It all stared by one person who commented in a civil engineering forum like this,

People started to enjoy and were ready to trend this, at the end of the day it was trending worldwide in twitter trends. And many newspapers and non Tamil twitteratis were questioning who is this "Nesamani"

It is a character played by Tamil Comedian "Vadivelu" in the movie Friends, where he plays a major role as a painting contractor. People started to use this and trend funny memes based on that situation.

Brands and celebrities didn't want to be left out and they soon hitched themselves to this trend. The amount of tweets by  brands is very good indication of how much the brands are active in social media.

Chennai Super Kings always prides itself in its Tamil Identity and heritage and it enhanced its position with this cheeky tweet. Even Harbhajan singh posted a personal funny tweet.

Painting companies also took advantage over the narrative , Nippon Paints and a Chennai based paint contracting firm "Paint Decors" took the focus towards their services

 Then there were firms which were related to entertainment like K TV and Sony Music which related through films and Music; Tourism and Travel firms like Air Asia and Pick your trail which associated  with the experience of getting hit on head.

The most innovative are the marketers for the education industry , CADD centre lined itself by posting a CAD diagram of the hammer, and Great Lakes institute implies it is a reliable institute by saying they wont drop a hammer on their customers head.

Then there is this oil marketing company which extolled the healing property of sesame oil and wished a speedy recovery for the injured Nesamani

Construction and petrochemical industries also hitched themselves to this trend

A pub in Chennai also tweeted an awareness message to its customers based on this trend

Even Government agencies were not ready to be left out, Tamil Nadu Police tweeted the need for wearing helmets with this wonderful tweet.

 This trend shows how a market can be uniquely segregated and targeted when brands are sensitive towards its target market. Tamilians have been united by Twitter like never before and are quick to give voice to what they believe is right and just. I believe that companies that reach out to customers in Tamil Nadu through social media will reap rich dividends.

   Here are some good articles about this trend

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/neasamani-takes-twitter-by-storm/article27358308.ece

https://www.indiatoday.in/trending-news/story/why-is-prayfornesamani-trending-the-reason-tamil-nadu-is-weeping-for-a-character-from-2001-movie-and-best-tweets-1538125-2019-05-30

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/nippon-csk-board-the-pray_for_nesamani-bandwagon-4043491.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48456790